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Space

All articles tagged with #space

space1 hour ago•4 min saved

New Lunar Trajectory Slashes Fuel Costs by 58.80 m/s

Researchers using the theory of functional connections simulated 30 million routes to the Moon and found a more fuel-efficient path that enters the lunar variate from the far side, reducing delta-v by 58.80 m/s and maintaining continuous Earth communication. The findings, based on gravity-assisted trajectories in the Interplanetary Transportation Network, could lower mission costs, though it is an initial result and future work may incorporate solar gravity as lunar missions scale up (e.g., Artemis 2).

via The Times of India|

#delta-v #interplanetary-transportation-network #lunar

space1 hour ago•47 min saved

Warp Drive: A Realistic Possibility for the Next Century

Warp drive has shifted from sci‑fi to a serious physics question. The Alcubierre model envisions a spacecraft riding a bubble of contracted/expanded spacetime, not breaking light locally, but it requires negative energy and exotic matter. While theorists have proposed tweaks to reduce energy needs, major obstacles—quantum-field instabilities at the bubble’s boundary, potential causality paradoxes, and enormous energy or size requirements—remain. Some researchers see future discoveries that could lower the bar or even produce detectable gravitational-wave signatures from warp dynamics, and ideas for hybrid systems (boosting with conventional propulsion before engaging warp) have been proposed. In short, warp drive is a provocative, still-unresolved frontier that could take decades or more to resolve, if ever.

via The Brighter Side of News|

#alcubierre-drive #exotic-matter #faster-than-light-travel

space3 hours ago•7 min saved

Beyond Jupiter, a dusty ring sparked a multi-generation planetesimal factory

Simulations show a dust-loaded ring just outside Jupiter acted as a long-lasting dust trap, producing multiple generations of planetesimals with varied compositions over millions of years and linking to meteorite types like carbonaceous chondrites, offering insight into the Solar System’s early planet-building history.

via ScienceDaily|

#carbonaceous-chondrites #dust-trap #jupiter

space4 hours ago•15 min saved

Hidden Clues in the Milky Way: Remnant of a Small Galaxy Unearthed

Astronomers have identified a group of 20 ancient, very metal-poor stars in the Milky Way's disk with mixed prograde and retrograde orbits and nearly identical chemistry, suggesting they are remnants from a long-ago dwarf galaxy dubbed Loki, potentially swallowed about 10 billion years ago; while not definitive, the finding supports the view that the Milky Way grew through mergers, a conclusion increasingly supported by Gaia data and galactic archaeology.

via Space Daily|

#gaia-mission #galaxy-merger #loki

space4 hours ago•12 min saved

The Myth of Opportunity's Last Words: A Paraphrase That Outlived the Mars Rover

Opportunity died in 2018 during a global dust storm, and its final transmission was ordinary telemetry — numbers showing power loss and darkness — not a spoken sentence. A journalist later paraphrased the readings to convey what the data meant, and that paraphrase spread as if the rover had uttered it. The misquote persists because people mourn the machine, not because Opportunity voiced a farewell. The true story is that the rover lasted 55 times its designed life, delivered real data, and the emotional impact comes from human grief, not the rover’s words.

via Space Daily|

#mars #misquote #nasa

space5 hours ago•42 min saved

Cosmic data tighten the test of light’s speed, keeping relativity intact

A comprehensive review of 65 observations from pulsars, active galaxies, and gamma-ray bursts tightens the limits on any energy-dependent variation in photon speed, finding no violation of Lorentz invariance and reinforcing Einstein’s relativity; it also refines how such limits are calculated and points to future instruments for even tighter tests.

via The Brighter Side of News|

#gamma-ray-bursts #lorentz-invariance #pulsars

space5 hours ago•72 min saved

Mars shows Earthlike solar-wind bending in its atmosphere

NASA’s MAVEN data, gathered after it went quiet in 2025, reveal the Zwan-Wolf effect—an Earth-style solar-wind deflection—occurring in Mars’ upper atmosphere during a December 2023 solar storm. The finding suggests Mars’ atmosphere can host temporary magnetic structures that funnel charged particles, implying the effect may operate continuously there but is usually too weak to detect; the results were published in Nature Communications. NASA also notes MAVEN’s ongoing recovery efforts after a period of contact loss.

via Space|

#magnetosphere #mars-atmosphere #maven

space5 hours ago•9 min saved

Webb’s Red Dots Point to Black Hole Feeding Inside Gas Clouds

JWST has identified over 300 mysterious red-tinted ‘little red dots’ whose origin remains unknown. A new Chandra X-ray Observatory paper reports that one LRD, 3DHST-AEGIS-12014, emits X-rays, aligning with the idea that some LRDs are a transient phase in which a supermassive black hole accretes material from a surrounding gas cloud; X-rays can escape during this process, making the dot visible. If this is correct, these dots should fade as the cloud is consumed, and continued observations including ongoing support for Chandra will be needed to catch such a transition.

via Hackaday|

#astronomy #black-holes #chandra-x-ray-observatory

space7 hours ago•2 min saved

Cryogenic fix clears Blue Origin's New Glenn for next launch

Blue Origin has been cleared for another New Glenn launch after investigators traced the April 19 anomaly to a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line, causing insufficient thrust on the second stage and placing AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite in an off-nominal, too-low orbit. The FAA grounded the mission pending fixes, the booster Never Tell Me The Odds landed successfully on its first reflight, and Blue Origin says corrective measures are in place as it plans to ramp production to around 60 upper stages by 2028 to boost launch cadence.

via Gizmodo|

#blue-origin #new-glenn #rocket-launch

technology8 hours ago•7 min saved

Starship V3: engine-out flight milestone and orbital heat-shield tests push Artemis IV plans

SpaceX’s Starship V3 Flight 12 from Pad 2 survived an engine-out ascent and reentry, deploying 22 payloads to test orbit-based heat-shield inspection that could speed up future flights, as NASA maintains Artemis IV targets and SpaceX moves toward a June 2026 IPO.

via Teslarati|

#artemis #heat-shield #space

space9 hours ago•74 min saved

DARPA gears up for in-space satellite servicing in geosynchronous orbit

DARPA’s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program is moving toward its first flight, featuring a dexterous on‑orbit servicing suite and a Mission Robotic Vehicle to refuel, inspect, upgrade, and relocate GEO satellites. The effort involves NASA and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, with SpaceLogistics’ vehicle backing the mission; launch could occur as soon as this summer, followed by ~10 months to GEO and first operations in 2027, signaling a shift toward sustainable, upgradable space assets amid a growing servicing sector.

via Space|

#darpa #geosynchronous-orbit #rsgs

space13 hours ago•7 min saved

Second ISS air leak renews decompression fears in the Russian module

A renewed air leak in the Russian segment of the International Space Station—specifically the tunnel linking the Zvezda module to the rest of the station—has raised decompression concerns after earlier efforts seemed to fix the issue in 2025. The leak’s return is treated as a high-risk, high-consequence problem by NASA and Roscosmos, but crews continue ongoing operations as maintenance budgets strain resources, with the long-term plan to keep the ISS viable until 2032 and hand over to commercial stations in the future.

via Boing Boing|

#air-leak #decompression #iss

sciencespace14 hours ago•2 min saved

China Tests Stem-Cell Embryos in Orbit to Assess Space Reproduction Feasibility

China conducted an on-orbit study aboard the Tiangong station using artificial embryos made from human stem cells to examine early development in microgravity. The two embryo models (one simulating uterine attachment and another using a microfluidic chip to mimic tissue formation) were cultured for about five days on the Tianzhou-10 supply ship, then frozen and returned to Earth for analysis, with Earth-based controls for comparison. The goal is to understand potential risks to human reproduction during long-term space habitation, not to create real babies in space.

via Gizmodo|

#biology #china #reproduction

technology17 hours ago•33 min saved

SpaceX lifts off from Cape Canaveral on Memorial Day, captured in photos

SpaceX launched a rocket from Cape Canaveral on Memorial Day morning, with the event documented in a photo gallery accompanying the report.

via Yahoo|

#cape-canaveral #memorial-day #rocket-launch

space20 hours ago•10 min saved

From Space, Borders Blur: The Overview Effect and a Call to Redraw Our Lines

Astronauts describe the overview effect—seeing Earth from orbit makes political borders and other divisions appear invisible, underscoring that such lines are human-made rather than intrinsic to the planet. Christina Koch, part of Artemis II, articulates this shift from the ISS cupola, while Victor Glover notes a ‘‘sea level effect’’ on return that forces a choice about how to live with these lines. The piece urges recognizing and reconsidering the lines we draw in daily life, since they exist only because we drew them and could redraw them.

via Space Daily|

#artemis-ii #borders #christina-koch